APRIL FOOLS: Powell pool to become regional landfill

Looking to resolve two long-standing issues in one bold move, the Powell City Council voted at tonight’s (Monday’s) council meeting to turn the Powell Acquatic Center into a regional landfill.

“Ever since the city learned we would have to take our trash somewhere other than the Powell landfill (which closed to household waste in September), staff and the council have been looking for the best, most financially viable place to take our trash,” said Powell Mayor Ron Valleyman. “It turns out that place is in the heart of one of our most-visited parks.”

The Powell Aquatic Center has run deficits since opening in 2010 and has been a challenge for the city’s budget. In addition, Powell leaders had been criticized by Park County commissioners for taking the city’s trash outside the county — to an unlined landfill in Cowley.

Now, the city’s trash will stay in Park County, and as Valleyman noted, the pool has a brand new liner. The move was welcomed by Park County commissioners, who indicated Monday they would like to see the former Aquatic Center become the regional hub for all the county’s trash. According to numbers crunched by Home, Plow and Co., a Cody engineering firm, it’s possible that trash disposal could become free given how efficient the new set-up promises to be.

Commissioner Bucking Grosscough said Park County, in turn, hopes to convert its empty, lined landfill cell in Cody into a recreational pool instead of using it for a trash pit.

“Landfills have generally been a lucrative business for local governments, but pools are basically a guaranteed money-maker,” Grosscough said in an April 1 interview.

9 comments

posted by Jim

April 03, 2013 7:32 am

I remember when the pool scheme started and John Pung was the only one who had the guts to speak out against it, and he was chastised by the local politicians.
His best selling sandwich was the sloppy Mayor. I bet many people miss his restaurant. We lost a good man

Really believe this is a form of apology and sccepted. Realizing that the pool is a disaster and that someone tried to tell up front what was going to happen and the good old boys????????? Now you need to correct the mistakes made. Like the fiber etc.. give them away if you have to. cut the loss. get back to basics and live within their means. stop the delusions. In the mean time how many good people have left powell? Sad but true and each one of them deserve an apology.. some lost money, some didn't but you hurt them.... this article caused quite a stir. have had phone calls and emails. John

even in small town center kansas we would never had done something so stupid . moeny is hard to come by for tax payers with out , i repeat without something so stupid as this . wow and y'all think were hicks and backwards .

Someone is really bored to come up with this ding dong article...we all know,sane people that is,that massive amounts of money was pooped away in Powell on pork projects sticking it taxpayers for a long..long time.How many good folks left Powell because of the idiotic decisions made in the last ten years.I know several that will never return there.

this is no joke. the sales tax chased business to Billings. It hurt everyone.
Second it was suppose to be 7 million and if there is not 15 million in it. It is still a disaster. It destroy part of a quality park. the contract was given by nepotism and friendship. The taxpayers have taken a bath on this.
The people from the paper to the mayor and crew should have to be held responsible for the money that was wasted. It is sad that same people try to run a café out of town for disagreeing with them. The café is gone and now and look at what has happen to Powell in the last year. There are so many apologies owed to this person. After a lot of thinking it still is hard to realize how much that café did for Powell

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